Funding is sought for economy airfare transportation costs for 28 participants to attend a closed, international research conference entitled "The Physical Chemistry of Bile in Health and Disease". The conference is to be co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and Kroc Foundation and will be held December 5-9, 1983, at the Double Arches Ranch, Santa Ynez, California. The conference will be convened to summarize the current knowledge of the physical chemistry of bile as it relates to cholesterol and pigment gallstone disease, and to define research priorities for the future. The following subjects will be discussed: 1) the chemistry and physiology of biliary secretion in health and disease, and 2) the physical chemistry of bile, including a) physicohemical aspects of bile acid-water systems, b) physicochemical aspects of mixed micellar systems simulating bile, c) cholesterol solubilization and dissolution: kinetic and thermodynamic aspects, d) bilirubin-bile acid-calcimmucus interactions, and e) crystallization in bile. Participants, who were selected by an ad hoc multidisciplinary committee, will be junior and senior medical scientists and physical chemists working actively in the field. This application seeks travel funds and postage costs only, as the Kroc Foundation has agreed to cover all operating costs of the conference. The conference promises to bring together scientists working on a common problem who seldom meet because their disciplines are so distant. The conference is timely, and no other conference on this topic has been held in the past or is proposed for the future. If successful, the conference could result in improved communication between physiological and physical scientists; this in turn should lead to advances in the understanding and treatment of gallstone disease which is a major cause of morbidity in the world.